The present invention pertains to a spring drive for toy vehicles.
A spring drive of the type herein disclosed is known from Darda U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,029. In that type of spring drive, the driving spring is tensioned by rotating the wind down/wind up shaft which carries wheels of the toy vehicle. In this connection, two gears which are connected to each other by means of a reverse pinion are placed in the force transmitting path between the wind down/wind up shaft, on the one hand, and the ends of the driving spring, on the other hand. The construction is such that by winding the wind down/wind up shaft in either direction the driving spring is tensioned both from its interior and external ends. Should the reverse pinion be held in mesh with both gears, the transmission is blocked and the driving gear cannot release. Only upon release of the reverse pinion axle, for example by releasing a holding force from the chassis, is transmission blockage lifted, so that the toy vehicle can move. An object of the invention is to provide such a spring drive so that the spring blockage is maintained after the driving spring has been tensioned and it is released only after the vehicle has been nudged in either direction of movement whereby the driving spring unwinding and the resulting vehicle movement are initiated.